Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Democrats Are Back: Why Republicans Can’t Get Complacent Before the 2026 Midterms

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Normally Podcast: Democrats Are Back: Why Republicans Can’t Get Complacent Before the 2026 Midterms · Normally

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Hey, you are back on Normally the Show with Normally
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: the Show. It's weird.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: I am Mary Katherine Hamm.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Carol Markowitz. How are you, Mary Katherine?
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: I'm good.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I just got back from the beautiful state of Maine.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I've never been there. Yeah.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: So I joined my friend, Laurel Libby, who is the
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: state rep who you'll remember was attempted to the Dems
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: attempted to silence her in her office.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: In her elected position. He wasn't allowed to speak. She
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: wasn't allowed to.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Speak because she had a different opinion about trans kids
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: in sports than they did. And then she won at
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: the Supreme Court, which elevated her to a position of
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: national prominence. And I'm very glad because she's very smart
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: and she's doing great work on the ground in Maine,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: which is a battleground state. So I got to go
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: and join her for a beautiful fall festival with her organization,
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Lead Maine, and I had a great time.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So how are they feeling over there about the old
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Susan Collins?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Well, I saw some Susan Collins folks out there, obviously,
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: hitting the pavement or the grass, as they say in Maine,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: because much more of it is grass than pavement. And
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: she said, look, they're out there doing the job. Susan
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Collins has fought this kind of fight before. The concern
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: is that because Susan Collins has always won, even with
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  Speaker 3: the attention on this race, that people might just be like,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, she's probably got it, right?
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Right. This is always the worry, you know, when things
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: are going too well. I mean, I worry about this
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: in Florida. I think that, you know, Byron Donald's got it,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: but you got to go out there and vote. Like,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that's the whole thing here. That's the whole thing here.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So they're working on that. There's another House district there
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: where the former governor, Paul LePage, is running. And that's
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  Speaker 3: the concern with him, too, because everyone will say, well,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: like he's the governor.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Of course, he's going to win this race.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to get out and do the voting. Yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The voting matters quite a bit, actually more than
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: all of your online posting, I'd say.
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  Speaker 3: But I did run into several people who I admire
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: for having this year and like in the past couple
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: of years. gotten trained for ballot harvesting, doing a bunch
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: of activism they haven't done in the past. It was
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: a great little crowd with an awesome band. We had
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: a great time. And Fall in Maine, are you kidding? Gorgeous.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: All right. I'm going to have to visit sometime. I
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: like the song Maine by Noah Kahn. You should listen
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  Speaker 1: to that. Okay.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Pulling it up.
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  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, elections are coming and Democrats are favored
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to win. Things are going really well. I also, you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: when I see polls and I see Republicans worried about this,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not naming any names, but do you recall after
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Trump won, there were so many Republicans saying things like
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the Democrats are dead forever. And me and you were like, no,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: they're not.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: No, no.
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  Speaker 1: Like, not only were they not dead forever, they barely
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: were dead for two years. Like, they are right back
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in it. It's, you know, it's like they're only one
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of the two major parties. And here they are potentially,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you know, poised to win the House and likely the Senate. So, again,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the going out and voting is important.
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  Speaker 2: But also, listen to us.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Don't count out the Democrats. I mean, that's a crazy
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: thing to have done. And then feel doom two years
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: later when they're clearly still an existing party.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: Yes. An existing party with a large apparatus, even if
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: it is slightly injured from before. So, yeah, I just
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: this week, Carol, I Yeah, it's a list. Yeah, number one,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: let's start with something light, which is, oh, surprise, surprise. L.A.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: 's mansion tax backfires spectacularly. Who could have seen that?
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  Speaker 2: Thousands of homes and jobs gone.
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  Speaker 3: So this is a mansion tax, this is the New
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: York Post reporting, sold to Angelenos as a way to
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  Speaker 3: tax the rich.
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  Speaker 2: And boost housing.
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  Speaker 3: Instead, it blocked the building of 9,100 homes, wiped out
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  Speaker 3: 16,650 full-time construction jobs, and cost... $ 452.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Million in revenue.
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  Speaker 3: This is a new report from United to House LA, ULA. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: this is what happens when you say we will punish
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  Speaker 3: you for building this type of home or owning this
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  Speaker 3: type of home.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like there are repercussions to your actions
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  Speaker 1: and they never consider that at all.
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  Speaker 2: This tax, of.
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  Speaker 1: Course, was... The socialist mayor, hopeful, as they call her
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: at the New York Post, Nithya Raman, loved this tax.
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  Speaker 1: She was all about it. And, you know, it's very
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: similar to the one that New York is proposing. That's
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: still weaving its way through the courts. But in L.A.,
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  Speaker 1: it meant if a property was sold for more than
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: $ 5. 4 million, the seller is taxed 4% of the price
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  Speaker 1: at closing. If it sells for more than $ 10 million,
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  Speaker 1: it increases to 5.5%.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Cool.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it is just obviously they're not going to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: build any more homes like this because it's expensive.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Surprise.
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  Speaker 3: That number applies to a lot of things that aren't mansions,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: that are apartment buildings, that are places where houses, multiple families.
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  Speaker 3: And those are now off the table because of the
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: raw numbers of tax these people would have to pay
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  Speaker 3: once they sell. This is how you get things in
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  Speaker 3: New York that are just empty apartments because you cannot
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: possibly make a living there.
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  Speaker 2: On maintaining them in that city.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And you need the housing. That's the thing. There's always
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: like this conversation about the housing crunch. This is where
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: it comes from.
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  Speaker 3: All right.
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  Speaker 1: What else do we got?
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Well, we got a sad, a very sad story, but
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  Speaker 3: I do want to mention it because it is indicative
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  Speaker 3: of how liberals run these cities. And it's creeping up
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: in my area as well. But this is in Chicago.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: A 48-year-old woman fatally stabbed a 7-year-old on the South
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  Speaker 3: Side Saturday morning. And Peter Moskos notes that she was,
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  Speaker 3: you know, booked for crime after crime, had conviction after conviction,
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  Speaker 3: release after release.
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  Speaker 2: He notes. And an open warrant. And why? Why is
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: she out there?
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  Speaker 3: Why is she out there to do this to a family,
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  Speaker 3: to devastate an entire community? Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: After she has.
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  Speaker 3: Been convicted of crimes multiple times over. But this is
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  Speaker 3: what this sort of empathy gets you. This is what
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: this sort of empathy gets for the law-abiding citizens in
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  Speaker 3: your city.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. It's just... I mean, you have to lock
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: up people who are committing crimes over and over again.
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  Speaker 1: I saw a tweet today about, from a Bed Stuyvesant,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: that's a neighborhood in Brooklyn subreddit, where people are identifying
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: this guy and they're like, oh, that guy punched me.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he punched me last year too. Oh, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: today he punched this guy. Like that guy has to
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  Speaker 1: go to jail. You guys, you know, it's a thing
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: where if you lock somebody up, they'll commit fewer crimes.
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  Speaker 1: It's like been proven over and over again.
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  Speaker 3: Well, and it's also like, I used to be more
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: on the sort of criminal justice reform side. And these
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: people would say like, oh, there's this over-incarceration problem. It's like, Actually,
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  Speaker 3: the number of people who do these repeat violent offenses
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  Speaker 3: is quite small. It doesn't really need to lead to
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  Speaker 3: over-incarceration to take care of the people who are violently
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: re-offending again and again and again. We also have a
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: little glimmer of hope from Seattle, although I'm not sure
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  Speaker 3: I wish that the socialists learn this quickly. Seattle mayor
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  Speaker 3: who is, excuse me, I'm forgetting her name, Katie Wilson.
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  Speaker 3: who is a socialist, she put forward a budget proposal
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  Speaker 3: this week that cuts and trims departments, proposes no new taxes,
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  Speaker 3: and adds cops.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. That's not very DSA-ish.
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  Speaker 2: It is not.
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  Speaker 3: And this is a woman who's, she is quintessentially DSA.
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  Speaker 3: Like she, you know, lived at the largesse of her parents.
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  Speaker 3: She worked in nonprofits for the past 20 years as
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: an activist.
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  Speaker 1: I love that that's where we start, though. Like, clearly
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: her parents pay for her life.
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  Speaker 2: That's why she's a socialist.
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  Speaker 3: That's why she's a socialist and why she could be
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  Speaker 3: an activist for all these years.
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  Speaker 2: Then she becomes mayor. And you know what? It turns
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: out that public unrest and.
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  Speaker 3: People getting shot in the streets and this not being
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  Speaker 3: dealt with by a competent leader has bad effects. And
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  Speaker 3: so now people are mad that a bunch of people
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  Speaker 3: were shot at Bite of Seattle and there wasn't even, like,
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  Speaker 3: a police chief around to deal with it.
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  Speaker 2: And they handled it very badly. There have been.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Several public, you know, sort of shootings in public gathering
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  Speaker 3: areas that the city has dealt poorly with. And now
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: she's apparently... turning a bit of a corner here, but
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: we'll see how it collides with the almost equally socialist
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  Speaker 3: local government that has to deal with this budget.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: That's the question. What is the rest of her government
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  Speaker 1: going to allow her to do? But apparently a top
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: advisor to her went to San Francisco last month to
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: study what the mayor there has done on crime, which
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: has really reduced crime. And again, it's not earth shattering stuff.
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  Speaker 1: It is stuff like locking up criminals, locking up you know,
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  Speaker 1: repeated criminals. It's not that difficult.
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  Speaker 2: It's actually not.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're you're actively making people's lives worse. So maybe
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: stop doing that part. And this is the this is
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  Speaker 3: the thing in in this election that I look around
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: and go, I have plenty of problems with Republicans. And yet,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Do I believe these people will not drag us back
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  Speaker 3: to this experience? No.
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  Speaker 2: That's their goal.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Outside of a few little twists and turns here
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: and there and mitigations, I think they want to go
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: back there. Right.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I fear that it will be left to us to
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: do a... Trump wins before the midterms because he has
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of wins and he has a lot of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: stuff that's gone really well and almost too well. People
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: have completely forgotten it and forgotten how bad things were
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: before he took office. And it is surprising. Again, who
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: is more surprised than us that it's left to us
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to do that kind of segment? But we will.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: There are real ones.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: So Amy Klobuchar, let's move to Minnesota, who is one
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: of the more sensible Democrats in the Senate, but she
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: is running for governor of Minnesota, which means she had
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: to show up this week at a gathering of Somali
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: immigrants and Somali Americans to pitch them on her as governor.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: And in that crowd, in a short video, there's Almost
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: no American flags, entirely Somali flags flying. The American flags
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: that are there are upside down.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: And she is at one point, Amy.
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  Speaker 3: Klobuchar, Senator for the United States of America, running for
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: governor of this American state, is handed an upside down
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: American flag that she sort of.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Handles and then hands it away. In what world is
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: this OK?
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I don't understand. I don't understand. Minnesota is still part
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: of America, right? Like just making sure.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I've been led to believe.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. How is this not an ender of her campaign?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: She's not even, you know, I'm not going to make
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the excuse. She's not even running for U.S.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Senate.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: She's running for governor, which is different. You know, U.S. Senate,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you could have kind of kooky foreign policy beliefs. But
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: here she's running for governor. How do you wave an
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: upside down American flag?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: It's wild. You know?
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I got into the comedian Ben Benkis this weekend.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I just like went through all of his stuff. He
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: is hilarious. He was. canceled from speaking in Minnesota in
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: this last year, didn't make a splash at all, which
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is like, I didn't even hear about this, but apparently
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: he had a bunch of shows that were booked, canceled
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota for, you know, they didn't like what he
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: was saying. He was, you know, had some jokes about
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Renee Goode. How is this okay? How is it okay
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: that this comedian gets canceled for what he's saying and
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: there's no publicity around it at all? And I get
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: to hear about Ed Sheeran for the rest of my life. How?
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I know. I know.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Or this moment, which is an actual elected official, which
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: will get very little coverage. Also in Minnesota, I wanted
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: to point out there was a homecoming football game disrupted
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: by gunfire.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: At the end. It was evacuated.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: It was between Eden Prairie and another, Edina maybe, I
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: think is the name of the area.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: At any rate, I looked these two cities.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Up and they are affluent $ 400, 000 to $ 700, 000 home areas,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: median incomes in the $ 160, 000 to $ 170, 000 range, and vote
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: 60-30 Democrat. This was a Somali gang movement. incident that
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: disrupted this Friday night football game. And Josh Holmes, who
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: I think grew up near there, or at least, you know,
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: of Ruthless, who grew up near there or in Minnesota,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: was like, the idea that gunfire would interrupt Friday night
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: lights in the place I grew up was like akin
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: to an alien abduction happening.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: During the game.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: But this is what happens.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: And by the way, the local press doesn't even mention
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: what actually caused the gunfire. They leave everyone to understand
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: outside of the actual press coverage because to say what
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: it is would be uncomfortable for everyone.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is just, I mean, wildly unacceptable. And I
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: don't understand how this goes on. That story was actually
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: highlighted by Michelle Tafoya. She's running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: She's a Republican nominee. I mean, that race is actually
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: a little close. So, you know, if she pulls it out,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: that'll be a huge win for Minnesota.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Well, and I think this kind of thing, reaching places
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: that it hasn't reached in the past, where the consequences
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: of these policies land on your doorstep on a Friday night, Yeah,
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: that's the kind of thing that does change races like
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: this that are sort of close. In addition to there
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: being an uprising against or a reckoning about and referendum
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: about Trump, there are also places that are led by
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Democrats that can deal with a reckoning themselves. If you
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: don't believe that, look at the Seattle socialists suddenly deciding
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: she wants to not raise taxes. I mean, like people
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: can get ticked off even in blue places against people
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: who are in power.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, I keep waiting for them to get ticked off,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you know, like this whole list that we just delivered here. Like,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: how are you not mad that all of this is
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: going on where you live?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: It takes a long time and it takes.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: I think this is part of the press's alliance with
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Democrats is that the leash is just shorter on Republicans
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: than it is on Democrats. And that's not something that
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: we should whine about because it just is. And it
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: means you have to do your job well.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: And it makes us stronger.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And also.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: It allows people in blue areas to hurt for longer
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: because this kind of stuff is not covered the way
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: it should be. And I don't think that's fair to
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: those people either. By the way, in Loudoun County, Northern
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Virginia schools, they just announced that October will be LGBT
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: plus history month because there's not enough of that curriculum
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: in the places where they can't. What's June going to be? No, no,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: we got two different ones now. And also no one
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: can write or read or do math.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Fine.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Who needs that when you've got LGBTQ plus history? All right,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: we're going to take a short break and be right
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: back with more on Normally. We are back on Normally,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: where as the election gets closer, the media is obviously
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: going to start pulling on our heartstrings about how evil
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the Republicans are. And right now, it seems that they're
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: headed in the direction of Trump is, you know, sending
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: all of these people who are here illegally back to
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: where they're from. And sometimes they are leaving their kids behind.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: And so CNN had a whole segment where they were
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: granted access inside an immigration court. And there were dozens
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: of children facing deportation. Erin Burnett tweets, some as young
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: as three years old appealed to stay in the United States,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: many of them facing the judge without an attorney representing them.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: I have very little sympathy here. And I look again,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I'm an immigrant. I understand the glory of America. But
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: if you are here illegally and you get kicked out
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and you leave your children behind, this is the kind
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: of thing that you're leaving them to do. I mean,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: what do you think is going to happen? Where do
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: you think they're going to end up if you're leaving
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: your kids? So I think the message has to be
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to people who are here illegally. If you are deported,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: you must take your children with you. I don't understand
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: how that's even a question.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Well, so, yeah, this is like the double bind that
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: media coverage puts everyone in, which is if they take
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: their children, Trump is deporting American citizens, if they're citizens.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: If they don't take their children, children are forced to
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: be alone in the United States of America.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: I think it's incredibly sad to see these children in
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: these prisons. The idea that it is the job of
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: American voters or taxpayers or that we are the responsible
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: parties for the fact that they are.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: In these situations, I think, is a huge stretch.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: And the accusations in the full CNN article, which I
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: read the whole thing, are that the things that are
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: bad are that these proceedings are expedited now.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: They don't take months and years like they used to
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: with Biden.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Now, normally the government working expeditiously would be good. To
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: give you your due process would be considered good. But
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: in this case, it's bad because in the Biden administration,
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: What happened is that you just they just forgot about
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: you and then you went on and lived your life
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: without ever having to deal with any of this, which
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: I don't.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: Think is appropriate.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Another complaint is that the Trump administration switched the nonprofit
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: that does the legal representation of these children. I want
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: them to be legally represented. I want them to have
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: someone with them who knows what they're doing. I don't
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: want that necessarily to be millions of taxpayer dollars going
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: to left-wing NGOs that do the representing, right? So I
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: think it's within the administration's rights to determine, okay, well,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: this wasn't working in the old system. What needs to
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: work in a different way now? And then, by the way,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: at the very end of the article, you find out
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: that everyone who chooses removal gets.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: A $ 3, 000 check.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: I mean....
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: It's a lot more than what is being presented to you. Right.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: And, you know, I get why Americans would be pissed
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: off at this. Like you commit a crime, you enter illegally,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: you get sent home, you get $ 3, 000, you leave your kid,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the kid ends up in court. We're supposed to to
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: be upset that the child who the parents left behind
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: after they took their 3K and bounced, like we're supposed
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to be mad that the kids are in immigration court
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: by themselves. Like their parents let that happen to them.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: What are we supposed to do about that?
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: Also, can I just counter this? Like we always need
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: context and the media never provides it. The context is
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: that the other way of doing this is what the
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Biden administration did. which the Committee on Oversight reported on
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: just a couple of weeks ago, that thousands of unaccompanied
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: minors are still missing due to the administration's policies. And
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: many of them were made laborers and sometimes in slave-like conditions,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: child labor-like conditions. Sex trafficking happened and also just missing.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: And that to me, is much more sad than sitting
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: in a courtroom accounted for and given $ 3, 000 and.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: A flight to join your parents. I don't see those
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: on the same level.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, that's right. I wrote about the Biden policies
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: at the time, and they were encouraging parents to send
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: their kids with coyotes across the border. And that's what happened.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Thousands and thousands of kids came by themselves Who knows
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: what happened to them? It was a very dangerous situation
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: for all the children involved. The Atlantic had a similar
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: piece to CNN. They followed a child left behind, a
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: two-year-old in Mobile, Alabama, whose parents were deported to Venezuela
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: without him. In this Atlantic piece, they say that ICE
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: deported both parents to Venezuela, even though his mother asked
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to be reunited with her sons first. I don't know
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: if that's true, but if that's true, she should absolutely
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: be reunited with her children in Venezuela. And that's the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: way it is. One of his mother's former co-workers now
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: cares for him. I just don't buy it. I think
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: that it's unlikely that a parent would leave without the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: child and we would have a problem with that. I
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: think that America would absolutely send the children to be
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: with their parents. It's just... You know, this writer, Austin Kocher,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: he writes, Brookings researchers estimated in May that about 205,000 children,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: including 145,000 U.S. citizens, had likely had a parent detained
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: since January 2025. More than 22,000 citizen children had every
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: parent they lived with detained. Again, I get the pulling
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: at the heartstrings. I get the promise of America. I
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: understand that people want to be here and they will
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: do anything to come here. And it is this amazing
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: place and you want your kids to grow up here.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: All very understandable. You can't break the law to do that.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: You can't cut the line. And that's what these people did.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: They decided that our policies didn't matter to them, that
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: our laws didn't matter to them. And they went around
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the line, got themselves in, and now their kids are
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: in a bad situation. Take your children with you.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Well, and I also like I always want to acknowledge
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: the fact that the state makes mistakes in any of
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: these near takings. Right. And I'm concerned about that. The
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: absolute negligence of the Biden administration got us here. Criminal
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: negligence got us here. And then you have to evaluate, OK, well,
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: what are we going to do to solve the criminal negligence?
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: And this is part of that process. And I want
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: mistakes corrected. And also, the process has to be a
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: rational one where people go through a court hearing, where
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: they go through a process, where this is figured out
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: instead of just let out to whomever feels like taking
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: care of them.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Many bad actors, by the way, during the last six years.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: That's right. All right. We're going to take a short
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: break and be right back with more on Normally.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: We are back on Normally with some good health news
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: and some bad health news.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Let's start with the bad. Folks in Russia.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Apparently quarantined now with a suspected plague. And it's not bubonic,
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: which comes from rats. This is pneumonic, which passes between humans,
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: thereby making it It says Russian authorities, this is The
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: Hill reporting, Russian authorities and Trump administration officials are monitoring
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: a possible pneumonic plague outbreak in Russia after a laboratory
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: worker died of an undisclosed illness. She worked at an
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: anti-plague institute of Siberia.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: She died after being diagnosed with a pneumonia of unknown origin.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Doesn't sound great.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: And Rubio says, I don't think it's cause for alarm,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: but it is cause for focus and a cause to
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: just keep an eye on it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I don't know.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: We've seen this before and I don't want to be alarmist,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: but let's.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Currently, we do have.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Vaccines for this. Is that correct? Or we just don't
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: trust anything anymore.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I can't stress that the rollout is going to
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: go great this time around.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: No, I think it exists already. But yeah, it's not great.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Mnemonic plague. And who knows what if they're telling us
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the truth. The problem when you're dealing with places like
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: China and Russia is that they lie. They lie quite frequently.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: And who knows? However, we do have to give a
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: little credit to Russia for not blaming, you know, them
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: eating bats in their soup or something. Right.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Also like in these anti viral and anti plague institutions
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: live by their names instead of creating new viruses.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: They do seem very.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Pro viral now that I, now that you mentioned it. Yes.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: Um, but let's do the flip side because I don't
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: want to bum you guys out at the end of
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: the show. This from our pediatrician friend, Elizabeth Bennett, uh,
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: who was a, you know, a COVID.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Skeptic, uh, correct on many things during that time.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: And, uh, And vocal about it, which of course came
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: at a cost for all of us who did that
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: at the time. She reports from the National Conference of
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: the American Academy of Pediatricians saying, I have noticed a
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: significant improvement from recent years. I've now been to three
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: lectures in different disciplines that all specifically covered and recommended deprescribing.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: In fact, I'm going to another today specifically on deprescribing
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: psychiatric medications.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: A gastroenterologist from Brazil.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: Did a great lecture on food as medicine and how
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: she gently teaches her patients how to cook. Went to
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: another good lecture on critical reading of journal articles, and
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: I was so glad to see representatives of Do No
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: Harm Outside. That's a group that joined together to get
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: kids back to school. I made sure to say hi
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: and tell them they have allies inside. From where I sit,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: things are looking up. You know, that's not the whole programming.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: And I'm sure there's a.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Bunch of stuff.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: She mentions that. She says there's still plenty of woke
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: lectures to be had. She chose, you know, what to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: go to. But I mean, it's a change from where
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: we were.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: It's an improvement.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Yes. And I think the the inching back towards normal
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: that you see here. is something that is an underrated
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: victory of the Trump win. I think that's a lot
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: of the reason many threw in with him. They're like,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: maybe he can put the brakes on this. And in
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: some significant ways, he really did. And some sanity has
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: been clawed back.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: And I, having.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: Listened to the list that we gave you in the
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: first segment, am concerned about it all being taken right away.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: And I think that's bad for children. It's bad for citizens.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: It's bad for taxpayers. But I like to see a
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: little bit of progress here, even in the places as
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: crazy as the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And pre-COVID... imagine us calling the american academy of
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: pediatrics crazy and now we know they're batshit so here
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: we are um i'd love to see any change any
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: movement in the positive direction and this sounds good so
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: well thanks for joining us on normally normally airs tuesdays
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and thursdays and you can subscribe anywhere you get your
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: podcasts get in touch with us at normally the pod
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: at gmail.com thanks for listening and when things get weird
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: act normally